Colbert-Steele Rap Battle: Off The Hook

The Stephen Colbert v Michael Steele off the hook "rap battle" went down last night. And guess what, the RNC chair brought it on with a little helpful editing.

Check out the video to see who won.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Michael Steele's Rap Battle Response
comedycentral.com

Source: ColbertNation

Jim Gaffigan E-Card

New record coming out from Jim Gaffigan.

Be sure to check out the "Ribs and Bologna" skit

Wilkerson And Maddow On Cheney: He Is Called Dick for A Reason

Why is Dick Cheney going to the media trying to undermine the current President. Almost predicting attacks? He is like a fear mongering heckler now.

Don't the conservatives get all mad when you attack the President? Or is it just their Republican President?

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, ex Chief Of Staff for Colin Powell, on Rachel Maddow discussing how incompetent Dick Cheney is, was, and will be.

High Income Taxpayers Need To Man Up

Great op-ed in the NYT on how the taxes going up on the mega-rich will not have a big negative effect. The story of the rich changing their lifestyle and/or charitable contributions is pretty weak:

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, estimated that in 2011, when the changes would be due to take effect, only 1.8 million taxpayers — 1.2 percent of the total — would have their deductions reduced. Just 1.9 percent of taxpayers with income from a small business earn enough to be affected by the limits.

So roughly 98% of the population is unaffected, and the 2% that are, are mega-rich.

Get out my violin. The tax cuts for the rich in 2001 under Bush were not needed. It was just his way of rigging the system. Those days are over. The middle class is going to get its day.

Source: NYT

Bernanke: No More "Too Big To Fail"

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke looks to end the "too big to fail" moral hazard scenario:

"The United States needs a safer way to shut down large nonbank financial firms without destabilizing the entire financial system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday.

"We have such a regime for insured depository institutions, but it is clear we need something similar for systemically important nonbank financial entities," he said in prepared remarks to a community bankers convention in Phoenix.

"Improved resolution procedures for these firms would help reduce the too-big-to-fail problem by giving the government the option of safely winding down a systemically important firm rather than keeping it operating," he said.

True capitalism would let these big institutions fail. America doesn't have true capitalism so using that "market economy" angle when screwing over the little guy is even that much more vengeful. Little guys guys can fail, they deserve it. Big guys? Oh, they need all the government help and tax dollars they can get.

Source: NYT

Obama's Direct Message To Iran

Obama's direct message to the Iranian people. The internet class of Iran must be overjoyed to see such diplomacy. Will this be the dawning of a new era? Those who wish for conflict will never appreciate this video. Those who have something to live for will.



The velvet glove perfected.

Source: www.whitehouse.gov/

Suze Orman: Bush Owes US Every Penny

Investment guru Suze Orman on Bush ruining the country:

Sitting in a green room after her TV interviews, she lambasts everyone from Alan Greenspan to Larry Summers to the former president of the United States, who holds an especially dark place in her heart. "Commander in Chief?" she says of George W. Bush, with a mix of disbelief and scorn. "You blew up every single financial vessel we had and if you think you aren't personally responsible, well, the blame starts at the top. There is no higher top than you, SIR! If I were you, I would feel so absolutely horrific that I would take every penny I had and distribute it to anybody and everybody to help them in whatever way I could. You owe the American people every penny of your fortune and your family's fortune."

MSM stepping up to the plate for once. Would have been nice a few years back.

As Balzac said: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime". Add Cheney to the Bush scoundrels who have profited, lining their pockets, using our country for war and oil.

Source: HuffPo

March 19: 6th Anniversary of Iraq War

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Too much to think about in terms of loss.

Arnold Hearts Barack

Arnold Schwarzenegger was mesmerized by our President during a recent town hall meeting:

"When have you ever seen a president be that out there? I’ve never seen that. Usually people are so guarded. The aides are always so guarded. They’re so afraid that you will blow it or that you will make news that’s unintended and all those things... But I think he’s so smart. He’s so clear with his thinking and he’s so well informed and has been dealing with policy in all this and is also very philosophic it’s almost like. I think he’s just like – I think it’s beautiful."

Sounds like he has a man crush. It's about time the 2 political parties started saying nice things about each other.

Source: Politico

Faux "Outrage" Make News Cycles

The markets are stable. The Dow is up 20% off its lows. A massive downward spiral has been averted. Investors have faith again in the market.

Why is there this fake "outrage" against Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner regarding the bonuses at AIG?

The old Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Bush Administration were the ones who crafted the initial bailout. They approved the bonuses. They are the ones you should be outraged at. They are the ones who had the original three-page bailout request for billions with absolutely no oversight back in September.

Tim Geithner has a perception problem, maybe, but he is part of the Obama team that is doing a great job turning this economy around. Are you really mad that he took a day to announce that he knew about the AIG bonuses? Is Geithner now supposed to run to the public and craft a message whenever there is a minor bump in the road? Let him do his job.

It's so amazing that all this "outrage" is now being reported on over trivial matters. Where was the reporting of outrage through the Bush years? Would have been nice back in 2002 and 2003 before we went into war.

Obama's NCAA Picks

Obama's handwritten NCAA picks. His Final Four are Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina. He bailed on my UCONN.

He picked the UNC Tar Heels to win it all.



Source: whitehouse.gov

Bush The Torturer

These are facts. Bush advocated and used torture. Not "torture", but torture. Bush repeatedly said the US does not torture. He lied. He lied a lot. With a straight face, he knew that he was the person who instituted torture, and then flat out lied to all of America. Never lose sight of the sequence of Bush using torture, denying torture, then being found guilty of using torture.

No more side-stepping the issue as partisan, this is what the Red Cross found:

"The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

We need a truth and reconciliation commission. NOW!

All these top guys in the Bush Cabal knew what going on. No one up the chain of command resigned. No one was fired after massive failures like Abu Ghraib. That's how you know they were all in on it.

Now that Bush and Cheney are out of office, commence the trials.

Source: Thomas Ricks

Obama's New Brand Of Politics

More of this will be written about as Obama re-defines how politics is played in America, but Taegan Goddard begins the sports metaphors:

"Politics used to be compared to "playing hardball" -- named for the baseball thrown faster than a speeding bullet straight for a batter's head or the dangerous squeeze play used to push home the winning run. That's no longer the case. In the Obama era, the sport can now better be defined as "playing curveball" -- after the moving, shifting baseball thrown to fool a batter into swinging wildly and missing."

How many times has Obama been under-estimated over the past 2 years? It's like he's won two Cy Young awards and we still don't know if he's good. Relax. He's an ace.

Bush, in baseball terms, is the rich kid who inherited a great baseball team and drove it into the ground, thus ruining the team and his family name.

He would have been the owner who introduced illegal activities to his team. Bush would have gone against the spirit of the game and the decades old traditions, as well just common sense, and bought the steroids for his players! As if that matters to Bush.

Source: Political Wire

Pope Benedict: Dead Wrong On Condoms

Having never used a condom, what insight does Pope Benedict have on the matter? Isn't it his job to end suffering?

Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against HIV, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

If he is trying to emulate Jesus, living in his mansion with the Papal jewels, how do you reconcile the wealth and the total lack of caring?

Is it semantics: they are not the answer? Maybe they are not the answer as in a "cure", but condoms help thousands, if not millions, of women from getting HIV and AIDS from men. How can Benedict look at at all the suffering and orphaned child, or even children with HIV, and think, "yeah, we need less condoms so we can increase the chances of this pain in the world".

The Church is so out of step with helping modern day problems because they cling to Bronze Age text.

Source: HuffPo

Dick Cheney: Executive Assassination Ring

This is going to get interesting.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s bombshell earlier this week that Vice President Dick Cheney controlled an “executive assassination ring” continues to reverberate throughout Washington, with Nixon aide John Dean going so far as to accuse the former VP of murder if the charges are true.

“It’s potentially a war crime,” Dean said of the reported assassination ring. “It’s potentially just outright murder and it’s clearly in violation of the Ford Executive Order.”

Dick Cheney is a monster who ran the White House for 8 years. As easy as it is to find Bush's actions deplorable, Cheney was the true puppet-master behind the curtain.

Someone get Sen. Leahy on this.

Source: Rawstory

Stewart Versus Cramer: Brawl Street

Is this the turning point? Where fake news holds real news up to a higher standard.

I feel for Jim Cramer. It was painful to watch him take it for all the CNBC weasels and the financial world, et al. I should add painfully good. Jon Stewart was amazing, summing up a nation's psyche with, "I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but this is not a fucking game". Cramer was at least genuine, it seems, in trying to atone. Saying, on the spot, he will try to change. Watch the show here.

Cramer is in a unique position, sort of like a mobster turned good: yes he has killed people and his friends are wise guys, but from time to time he does well and has the church painted. Cramer would make a great mafioso, but that's not who he is. He is marketed as a trusted name by a corporate TV channel.

Yes, Cramer is entertainment. His Mad Money show is very well produced and slick. But he knows this is a game played in back rooms using false information to manipulate positions. Foment anyone? He has done the manipulating himself. He admits it.

So when Cramer goes on the air and says "I spoke with a CEO like Dick Fuld and he said 'statement A'", knowing that CEOs lie and have lied to his face before, he has to take responsibility and not just turn around and repeat the "statement A", then down the road, with self-imposed impunity, say I was lied to.

I think its time to peel back the fairyland veneer that Wall St has built and see it for what it is. We need to embolden the SEC to go after these schemes that are beyond the grasp of the average investor. Hedge funds should not have carte blanche anymore. And hopefully networks like CNBC stop cheerleading and investigate these crimes they are knowingly broadcasting.

In sports, when a Roger Clemens makes a over-reaching statement, the commentators attack him for lying. In sports, the Alex Rodriguez steroid story was broken by Sports Illustrated. In sports, Patriot's coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 for cheating within a week of being caught. In sports, ESPN is not owned by Las Vegas.

And as much as sports is influenced by gambling [why are the Vegas odds printed in every newspaper?] and tips are shared in back rooms, it's SPORTS! Your money, while wasted on high ticket prices, is still your money and you can choose to not go [or gamble].

The financial world and CNBC are different. That is people's 401k and retirement money. They have to be held responsible. Either that or put up graphics on screen as disclaimers: "this guy may or may not be talking complete bullshit, invest at your own peril".

I guess it's a weird sentiment in America where if you really screw up on Wall St, like Ivan Boesky to Bernie Ebbers to Ken Lay to Bernie Madoff, there is no real venom, no real justice. We just let them sit in a prison, but not a dangerous one where they are someone's bitch "tossing salad". A nice one. With tennis courts.

Steal billions of dollars and get your day in court. Loot a water-logged DVD player in New Orleans after Katrina and you should be shot on the spot.

The fake world of finance is busted by the fake news of the Daily Show. Is anyone surprised?

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest, Erickson

This is the Republican Party.

"We have a guy who ran a ponzi scheme that stole billions of dollars from people to fund God knows what. Granted the American people elected him President, but compare what Barack Obama is doing to what Bernie Madoff did and I fail to see a substantial difference beyond Obama having a “mandate” from voters and Madoff not having one. Both Madoff and Obama have put people out of work. Both Madoff and Obama have destroyed the financial health of lots of people. Both Madoff’s and Obama’s schemes have convoluted accounting schemes designed to obfuscate the criminal mismanagement of other people’s money. The difference is that Madoff did it to powerful billionaires who are now millionaires. Obama did it to the rest of us," - Erick Erickson, Redstate.

Obama has destroyed so much according to this genius. I guess Bush has done nothing. The $1 trillion Bush spent on wars, while racking up the most debt ever, that's sound finance. It's that damn Obama, after 50 days in office, who fucked it all up. Obama forced Bush to buy Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he forced Bush to federalize the banks and buy up AIG last year.

Madoff's ponzi scheme is the same as the President, Vice-President, the 535 members of Congress and the collective millions in local and State governments acting under the Constitution, enforced by the Supreme Courts and thousands of State and local courts? That is crystal clear, Erick. You don't even have to explain it to me.

And throwing around "criminal" as if Bush and Cheney will not be history's poster boys for illegal activities while in office. Well played.

Erick, even your audience of social and financial cretins deserves better.

Source: Andrew Sullivan